06 Sep A Courtroom’s Ecosystem

Posted at 10:52h in Advocacy, Attorney Education, Court Interpreting, Interpreters, Janis Palma, Leadership, Recent Posts by Observer Editor 5 Comments

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There are big fish and little fish in a courtroom’s ecosystem. Judges are definitely the biggest fish of all. Interpreters? Well, that’s what I have been thinking about: where do we fit in the courtroom’s ecosystem? Throughout my years in this profession, I have encountered...

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08 Aug Learning where this all started

Posted at 01:00h in Attorney Education, Court Interpreting, Ethics, Interpreters, Janis Palma, Recent Posts, The Profession by Observer Editor 13 Comments

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I was the little girl who loved going to school and begged her parents to put her in first grade when she was barely old enough to be in kindergarten. I was the little girl who had a lot more fun playing “office” than playing...

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11 Jul Interpreters Are Not Tools

Posted at 01:00h in Advocacy, Attorney Education, Continuing Education, Court Interpreting, Interpreters, Interpreting, Janis Palma, Professional Practices, Recent Posts, Tools of the trade by Observer Editor 15 Comments

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There is a rather distorted perception held by some legal professionals about the role of interpreters in courtroom proceedings or even outside of court. They believe interpreters are tools, like a microphone or a laptop computer, things they can use for whatever purpose they have...

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20 Jun Who’s your client?

Posted at 01:00h in Business Practices, Community Interpreting, Court Interpreting, Immigration, Janis Palma, Recent Posts by Observer Editor 5 Comments

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Interpreters have many clients. I don’t mean who pays. I mean who is the beneficiary of your interpreting services. Yes, we do see whoever hires us as the “client,” but as a professional service, that is not the most precise way of defining a “client.”...

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09 May Best Practices for Witness Preparation

Posted at 01:00h in Court Interpreting, Ethics, Interpreters, Janis Palma, Professional Practices, Recent Posts, The Profession by Observer Editor 15 Comments

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I was talking to a friend and colleague recently about all the in-person work we’re starting to get in court, both civil and criminal. She mentioned, in passing, that she had received a call to prepare a witness for trial. The conversation turned to the...

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01 Apr 2022 Annual Election

Posted at 14:59h by Susan Cruz 0 Comments

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29 Mar One profession, one name

Posted at 10:34h in Advocacy, Business Practices, Community, Court Interpreting, Interpreters, Interpreting, Janis Palma, Recent Posts, The Profession by Observer Editor 23 Comments

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Can we please standardize the name we use to refer to our profession and those who practice it? There are so many variations on a theme: legal interpreting, community interpreting, court interpreting, public-service interpreting, judicial interpreting, and of course, the one name adopted by our...

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15 Mar Continuing Education

Posted at 13:47h by Susan Cruz 0 Comments

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14 Mar Things We’re Not Talking About

Posted at 16:36h in Advocacy, Community, Immigration, Interpreters, Janis Palma, Leadership, Recent Posts, Volunteer by Observer Editor 5 Comments

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This is the war everyone hoped would never happen. And yet it has happened. Most of us had never paid attention to Ukraine, except perhaps when it came up during the testimony before Congress in 2019 regarding Marie Yovanovitch, a former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine....

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08 Mar Business As Usual

Posted at 18:06h in Business Practices, Hilda Zavala-Shymanik, Interpreters, Mentoring, Personal Growth, Professional Development, Recent Posts, The Profession by Observer Editor 4 Comments

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I had my first business at the age of twenty. It was a furniture store a block away from the main plaza in downtown Celaya, Mexico. Business has been in my blood since I was born. My father was an entrepreneur and we, the sisters,...

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